Creating Cartoon Characters in Maya

In this series of Maya tutorials, we will go step-by-step through the process of building and texturing a child character in a cartoony style. Cartoony, stylized characters are prevalent in the world of TV and film CG, as well as video games. These types of characters are a lot of fun to build, but they do present their own set of challenges.

We'll jump right into the training by talking about creating work that matches our reference images. We'll use a variety of polygon methods as well as some NURBS techniques to build up our adolescent football star from the ground up. In addition, we'll talk about creating topology that will lend itself well to deformation during animation.

In the end, you'll have a finished cartoon character ready for rigging and animation. And you'll have the knowledge you need to begin creating your very own character designs.